Negotiations
by wolight
Summary: A pair of mercenaries visit the new Fire Lord for the right to pursue contracts in Fire Nation lands. Mishaps ensue. Mild violence


*******  
A brief explanation: About two years ago a few people gathered on the IMDb board for Avatar and we've been doing a writing game there with our own characters, much fun was had. Anyway when I first wrote my main character Aidan I believed first and foremost that he never meet the main cast of the show, it's quite possibly the only reason he's not a Mary Sue (Self degrading humor or honesty? You decide). Yet here I am doing a fic about him meeting Zuko. I did it for two reasons: First because after two years of development I've realized that the next natural thing to happen in his story is to meet some of the Avatar world royalty and I cannot pretend it will not happen, more on that later. The second reason is lately on the RP (What we call it) I've felt he's started to derail. Now I could blame someone, possibly the newest member, but finger pointing is for politicians, what I did through writing this was rediscover everything I like about Aidan, and everything I knew about his character that I almost forgot.

He's a Chaotic Good (With occasional Chaotic Neutral tendencies) mercenary who grew up watching way too many adventure plays and reading too much heroic poetry (There's that self degrading humor again), he's not the greatest swordsman in the world, nor is he the smartest man living in the Avatar world, but he's a good fighter and tactician, he's what would happen if Malcolm Reynolds grew up in Cimmeria. He lives in a town owned by the mercenary company he belongs to, his grandfather founded said company and who after raising three daughters chose to allow the eldest to inherit the company rather than pick a male successor at random, by making it the only military company that accepts women in less than a generation the girls outnumber the guys by at least three to one. At the age of eighteen he married his childhood friend and on/off girlfriend Linh, months later his mother stepped down as head of the company and he has been in charge for about a week now.

And now the legal stuff:  
I do not own Avatar it belongs to Nickelodeon

And now we begin

*******

"So, explain again why we're going in this direction." Linh asked her husband as they rode their ostrich horses. Linh was a young woman in her late teens, long black hair, green eyes, full figure, the kind most men would find attractive if they did not mind a girl with some muscle tone, which years of fighting experience gave her, she wore a dark green riding skirt with a long sleeved tunic. "Because we have to broker a treaty with the new fire lord on the subject of chasing contracts across continents. We've always had one with the earth kingdom, we got one last year with the water tribes, and now that the war ended for the better we have to." Aidan said. He was of the same age as his wife give or take a few months, dark eyes which matched his dark hair, and dressed in a black sleeveless tunic and slacks, he was built with the economy of power and motion that betrayed his standing in the world. Aidan was the recently named leader of a band of mercenaries, and this was his first outing of diplomacy rather than bloodshed. "And explain why we're meeting in an earth kingdom manor house and not oh say the fire nation or our town?" Linh asked "Things like these have to be done on neutral territory, saves everyone the effort of avoiding backstabbings by loyalists." Aidan said. "Well anyway we're here."

"Welcome to the earth king's newest vacation home. There will be a servant to take your bags, the Fire Lord should be here in an hour or so, and if you need anything else just say something, my name is Ajit and I am the caretaker of this mansion." Ajit was a man in his mid forties, slightly out of shape and specks of grey dotting his hair, he was dressed in green silks. "We can take care of our own bags, thanks though." Aidan said. "Alright then, oh, that's the fire lord's carriage just outside, looks like he's arrived." Ajit said _Ok I've heard about him, but I only know so much so for the sake of politeness do not look at the scar. _Aidan thought to himself, then Fire lord Zuko and his fiancé Mai exited their carriage. _That thing is huge…Can he see out of that eye? How do you walk away from that without brain dam… Crap I'm doing it, look at something else, the hair? The other eye, help me here brain come up with something better to do. _He thought. "Fire Lord Zuko, glad you could make it, when do you want to get started?" Aidan said bowing. "Mercenary Lord Aidan, I was informed we would be given the rest of the evening, settle in, we can get initial negotiations underway next morning." The Fire Lord said. "Well then, we'll be in whatever room is available." Aidan said. "This way." A servant led the two pairs to their rooms.

"He called you mercenary lord Aidan…" Linh said "I know, and I said nothing, where did that come from?" Aidan asked sarcastically. "Seriously, what happened to my dear husband who stabbed a guy for referring to him as a prince, and who steadfastly refused to bow to anything?" "That guy started worrying about sparking hostility with what should be a friendly government." Aidan said "And so it begins." Linh said sighing "What begins?" "This is where the adventures stop and you start getting boring, now comes the years of wasting away behind the scenes while the younger generation performs heroics." "Ok ok, first thing this morning I'm going to explain that to the Fire Lord, but first you are going to find out how little I've wasted away just yet." Aidan said grabbing Linh.

"Any thoughts?" Zuko asked Mai as they unpacked in their room "I thought he'd be less outgoing, quieter." Mai said "A guy version of you then." "Well it's a natural assumption to make isn't it? He made that painting that gives you nightmares." "It didn't give me nightmares, I just didn't like having it in our bedroom." "Because you were afraid of it." "That… Might be true, I still think it just isn't something The Fire Lord's room should have." Zuko said "Argue later, right now I need to relax" Mai said before removing dozens of knives from her sleeves and placing them on the tea table.

Morning seemed to arrive too early for Aidan and Linh, the sunlight piercing them as they redressed, then went down to the dining hall for the opening meal. "Lord Aidan, one of the servants told me he heard you talking last night." Zuko started "We were sparring." Linh said blushing. "Um dear, I think he meant our conversation." Aidan said "Oh, the part where Aidan doesn't like to be addressed as lord, yes it's a thing he has, it would be best to just leave it at that." Linh said "Well then, from now on the negotiations can begin without that hanging over… Over…" Zuko stammered before falling forward onto the table. "This is bad." Aidan said realizing that their tea had been poisoned, shortly before he himself slipped into darkness.

Aidan woke up in a room tied to a bedpost by his hands. He glanced around to find Zuko similarly tied and with his mouth covered. "Way too familiar a scene for me, how about you?" He asked the fire lord, who could only give a loud "frmff." "Anyway, I ASSUME SOMEONE IS GUARDING US!" He called out toward the door to the room. "That would be me." A voice called out from the other side. "Well then, I assume the unrelenting bastards are behind this?" He asked "Perhaps, for now be content in the knowledge that neither of your women are harmed, at least not yet." The voice said. "You know, there are those who say I'm the best fighter in the earth kingdom, how about I give you a shot at that title." Aidan said "I'm not falling for that one, you got us once before on that." Aidan kicked over a shelf from the nightstand. "Perhaps, or maybe I'd make it fair and stay tied to this post here." He said "That does sound tempting, but again I think you have some scheme related to this." He found a pin in the shelf, then kicked it over to his hand. "Truth be told, yes, I think you'd come in with a knife to give me some kind of scar that will remind me to… Oh right the Fire Lord's sitting across from me." He said as Zuko glared at him "And what would be your trick?" The voice asked "I'd duck to the side at the right moment, probably catch the blade with my teeth, then stab you by flipping it with my tongue and heabutting you." Aidan said as he picked the lock from the irons with the pin. "I'm sure you'd have a countermeasure to that." He said again. "Of course I would, it's called letting the opposition get killed by his own stupidity." "True, true." Aidan said as he felt the side of the door, then kicked it right above the hinge causing it to fall on the man on the other side. Before his jailer recovered Aidan stabbed him in the throat with the pin, barely long enough to reach anything vital, but it still performed adequately.

Linh awoke in a similar room, bound by the wrists in irons and with the lady Mai across from her, still unconscious. Linh felt compelled to awake her, so she tapped Mai lightly on the shoulder. The fire lady shook awake with confusion in her eyes, her mouth also bound. "Yeah, someone put something in our drinks, or maybe it was the food I don't know." Linh said quietly. "SO WHO'S IN CHARGE?!" She called out to the door on the other side of the room "I am." A voice called back. "So what do two well figured women need to get some food, you knocked us out during breakfast and I'm starving." The door opened and two men entered. Both grinning widely "Oh so it's going to be that way, what kind of idiot do you think I am? Get me something to calm my stomach then you won't need these chains to make sure I won't struggle." Linh said "Honest?" One of them asked "I'm a mercenary, I've done worse for less." She said "Not sure about the future fire queen though." "Agreed then." The two men left for the kitchen. "Now that no one can hear me…" Linh wrapped her irons around a foot of the nightstand, "A little leverage and…" She pulled them across, eventually the chains shattered "Being an earthbender has it's qualities, extreme strength being one of them." She said "Oh and I have to keep that wrapping around your mouth for now, they'd get suspicious otherwise." The two men returned with fresh rolls and water minutes later. "Well then, are you going to eat or is the fact that we brought this good enough to get started?" One of the men asked. "Um… Sure might as well get it out of the way." Linh said. As the first one approached she grabbed the knife from his belt, then stabbed him in the stomach, in one fluid motion she moved the knife out of him then spun aside and drove the knife into the other's throat. Both fell to the ground seconds after. "The keys should be around here somewhere." She searched their pockets, then used what she concluded were the keys for the irons and freed Mai.

"This should do." Aidan said taking a weapon from one of the fallen guards, it was a small hatchet, probably for throwing when the wielder's bending was unreliable "For now anyway." "I have a question." The Fire Lord asked "Is it true you once stopped a siege tank by running your sword through the roof and killing the driver?" "That depends, did you take a lightning burst from your psycho sister and get right back up and beat her unconscious?" Aidan asked sarcastically "A girl traveling with me did that while I lay on the ground twitching, I guess that's a no then." Zuko said "Funny what others say about what you do when few others are watching." Aidan said

"So why are we going to the kitchen?" The Fire Lady Mai asked "About a few hundred easily pilfered weapons, plus a marble table or two for me to bend." Linh said "Why would you need those?" "Because the building is shaped stone, which I can bend, but it's coated in about an inch of sealed wood to prevent assassins with bending abilities." "And we're climbing down the outside wall because?" "So no one will see us. Now please keep talking I need someone to distract me from the fact that a wrong step would send my femurs into my lungs." Linh said "What?" "Keep talking, I don't care what about." "I'm the last person you can depend on for that." Mai said as they climbed down another floor "I figured, but still, easier on my mind to ask." Linh said almost slipping before she righted herself. "Fine, so is your husband doing any more paintings?" Mai asked "Oh great I lost." She muttered to herself "No he does not plan on continuing his art career, found that whole crowd too disagreeable." She said louder. "And by disagreeable you mean?" Mai asked "The artistic world, most of them felt he redeemed himself by painting, made himself a more productive member of society. Naturally he found that offensive." Linh said "Though I wouldn't put it past him to do a few things in his ever increasing free time. So, what's it like betrothed to the head of the Fire Nation?" "Meh, we were friends since childhood, hooking up with him when we got older just felt like the right thing to do." Mai said "I know exactly how you feel, when I met Aidan…"

"Aww crap." Aidan whispered peering around a corner and seeing several armed men on the other side. "That bad?" Zuko asked "Ok here's what I need you to do." Aidan took a flower pot from a nearby table. "I am going to toss this in the air, you shoot it out of the air with your firebending, after that you take the five on the right and I take the five on the left." Aidan counted down from five on his hand, then tossed the flower pot and the two rushed toward the group of thugs. Zuko burned the pot, the heated soil and clay hurt and blinded their opponents sending the ten men into a panic. Aidan swung his newfound axe into the nearest to him, using his momentum to swing himself into another before taking his first victim's knife from his belt and tossing it into another thug's trachea, then Aidan ducked under a sword swing that got lodged into the wall, he kicked his attacker and took the sword before applying it to his last victim. The Fire Lord Zuko demonstrated his namesake by opening with a stream of flame that brought down the two in front of him, an axe came down but Zuko caught his attacker's arm and burned his arm to the shoulder, another tried to attack his flank with a short spear but Zuko quickly bent a fireball at him with his other hand, he then turned to face his last opponent and jumped back away from a mace before he kicked his legs from under him, then kicked fire once while he was down. "Another question." Zuko asked "Why do you not like being referred to as Lord Aidan?" "Because back when I was a kid everyone jokingly called me 'prince Aidan' because it became obvious that I was going to inherit my company from my parents very soon after my first job. I always felt it put me in with the same crowd that shunned you for daring to care about your own people, and set up the old king of Ba Sing Se to sit behind a palace wall never knowing the plight of his lands." Aidan said. "Oh great, I assume you're going to lecture me about ivory towers and all that." Zuko said "You? I'd never, least of all after you just saved my life a moment ago." Aidan said

"There's the kitchen." Linh said "I don't know about you but I need a weapon." "I need a few dozen steak knives." Mai said, Linh smirked at her as they entered.

"How much would I have to pay you to guarantee Mai survives this and to ignore everyone else here?" Zuko asked "My wife is in this festering pile, not for all the money in the Fire Nation." Aidan said "Just what I thought." They walked by the main dining hall, a voice shot out of the room "I figured you'd show up sooner or later. Your women are in here with me." They both turned around "Wait, think about it, could be a trap… Eh what's the point, we're going in anyway." Aidan said in a deadpan voice as he opened the door to the dining hall. Dozens of thugs armed with bows and crossbows formed a circle around them. "Oh well I was right, and yet, here we are." Aidan said "I was also right about this being from Unrelenting, this payback for sending your boss through the Ba Sing Se legal system?" Aidan said noticing the tattoo on the leader's hand "To be quite honest, that's just business. You took a job to bring him in, he failed to protect himself. Now though we really need some cash." He said "All this is just to hold us for ransom?" Zuko asked "Three of you, you see I know neither of your people will gather the required funds without one of their leaders to tell them to. So one of you will go and the other three will be sent back in pieces until I get five million gold pieces. Once my people bring your women in here we can begin." "Let me guess, some kind of sadistic choice where we vote over who goes?" Aidan asked "I was hoping to wound the first person who votes for themselves. That should tangle up the situation a little more."

"Five million then, well I'd be lying if I said we didn't have that lying around. Of course I'll have to dump every public works project that's been on the agenda lately." Aidan said "We do have a good sized tax surplus from not having to pay and mobilize our armies as much." Fire Lord Zuko said "Then your government's picking up the tab on this one." Aidan said "Why should I? It's basically your fault this happened." "Oh yeah, when I took a contract a couple weeks ago I just _knew _he'd kidnap the damn Fire Lord." "Still your responsibility" "Ok I'll pay for half and you pay for half" "Still no." "Ok I'll pay half, you pay half and your government gets a ten percent cut of all jobs taking place in your jurisdiction." Aidan said "Still no." "Oh come on, now it's just obvious we're fake arguing to provide a distraction for our captors like in all the plays." Aidan said. Suddenly a marble cylindrical object the size of a desk crashed into the dining hall. Half the thugs in the room pointed their weapons at the freshly made hole in the wall, expecting the attacker to burst through at any moment. The cylinder then stood up straight on the ground, then burst in half. Linh and Mai stood on one half, while Linh held the other half through her bending in her left hand and a makeshift Naginata out of a cleaver and a stirring spoon in her right. The marble on the floor started moving as Linh made bending motions. Mai started throwing her new kitchen knives at everyone near, Linh's new shield stopping the arrows and her Naginata taking care of anyone who got close as they slid across the floor "What would they do without us?" Linh asked proudly "Mine would be on the bottom of the boiling rock, yours?" Mai said in between knife throwing. "Mine would be in an unmarked grave in a middle of nowhere Earth Kingdom town. Linh said before getting off the moving earth then cutting down the last thug. The leader remained.

"Let me guess, irons?" He said, defeated. "Yeah." Aidan said "So, five percent if we catch you in our jurisdiction hunting someone who doesn't work for our government?" Zuko said "Sounds good enough to me, that was my original offer." Aidan said "Pleasure doing business with you." The Fire Lord said. "Are you telling me we went all this way, fought way too many idiots than I'd like to, almost sold my body for a piece of bread, and saved your ass just for what could have taken a few minutes?" Linh said visibly angered. "Yes, this is how all diplomatic exchanges are performed." Aidan said sarcastically. Linh walked to Aidan's side "Seriously though, I was worried about you." She said "So was I." She leaned in for a kiss then Aidan stopped her "Wait, you've got a little…" He said clearing a spot of blood off her forehead with his hand. "Now." Then they kissed in celebration. "Creepy." Zuko said "What, that they don't mind the fact that they just killed a few people?" Mai asked "Something like that" "Sometimes I wonder why I don't hate you." Mai said before leaning against his shoulder. "So remember, I am the greatest tactician in the Earth kingdom, since Sokka lives in the water tribe." Aidan said proudly "You think Sokka's a better tactician than you?" Zuko asked surprised "Maybe this is me hearing wrong about others like we talked about but is it true he killed the best hitman in the Fire Nation with trigonometry, broke you and his girlfriend out of the toughest prison in the world, and brought down a fleet of airships with himself and two others?" Aidan asked "Well ok, he did all that but… Well I guess you'd have to know him to understand." Zuko said

The next morning, with negotiations complete, and the man responsible brought in chains to Omashu, the four went their separate ways. "So, what are we gonna do tomorrow?" Linh asked "Back to boring paperwork probably." Aidan said "Oh well."


End file.
